You will probably get great ideas from the North American Rock Garden Society's website. They are not exclusive to natives, but the slope with large rocks would lend itself to much of this type of landscaping. As for the natives, they do include some, and you can check out our natives that prefer dry after you amend/change the soil.

Here is a link that might be useful: North American Rock Garden Society

If I took the title of this literally "plant cotton and Eastern red cedar". Both drain nutrients from the soil.

However, most plants like rich soil with organic matter. What plants that "like" sandy poor soil like is good drainage and/or lack of competition with weeds. So, you could add a layer of gravel and cover it with a layer of sand for drainage?

I love the idea of Bearberry, but it grows very slowly. You need to plant a lot of it...it won't spread to fill in gaps quickly.

The other (risky) thing you could try with bearberry is add a little salt...it is a salt tolerant beach plant, and could probably survive more salt then most weeds.

It almost sounds like what you are going for will end up a "faux" beach. Other things you could scatter around the landscape are Beach Plum (makes edible fruit) Beach Pea (Lathyrus japonicus) and Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica). Although the Beach Plum might attract deer.

Oh, one risk you have to worry about is erosion. Weeds do control erosion...a sloped area covered with sand could erode in the rain. The boulders could control that, and the bearberry would once they spread.

This post was edited by edlincoln on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 12:25

Here is a question for you - it seems that you want to make this a low maintenance area and put in a ground cover type of plant that will thrive on your slope and choke out weeds. Why are you making more work for yourself choosing a possibly innapropriate plant for the area in question that may not even grow well in your conditions?
I have always said to gardeners if you put a plant in a spot where you think it would look good, it may not grow. If you put the plant you want in the conditions it requires, it will always look good.
Don't fight the conditions you have - take advantage of them and plant the groundcover that would work well.

Epimedium is fairly indestructable in shade or sun - dry or moist.
Sweet woodruff spreads quickly enough if fertilized to choke out weeds.
Dwarf Ivy - use a variegated variety for more color.
Hay Scented Fern - a quickly spreading groundcover for sun/shade.

You didn't mention which climate zone you are in - if I knew that, there would be even more suitable plants to use. Use what will work in your garden! It is easier to go along with nature rather that going against it. There are many things you can use that would look amazing. Bearberry is a beautiful plant, but put it somewhere else - in a spot where it will grow! And putting salt on it is not the way to get it established while keeping other weeds down! Good luck to you -

I'm with Jebfarm. Plant something that will be happy with what you have. What about low growing native grasses? Prairie Dropseed is lovely and doesn't grow very tall. It would require trimming back in spring. Virginia Creeper is a vigorous native vine that grows almost anywhere. It would need trimming to keep it in check, but a pair of shears would make quick work of that. Good luck.

Martha

Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) is a well-behaved, native ground cover that is an evergreen. It also produces edible berries used for teas and flavorings. Wildlife (deer included) love the berries but leave the foliage alone. It prefers part-sun to shade too.

I'm absolutely with Docmom, Prairie Dropseed is my FAVORITE native grass...just beautiful form.
Plant an appropriate plant...don't try to doctor for an inappropriate plant.
Patridgeberry would work if your area has some shade (you didn't really say). Actually...why don't you repost with your location, conditions, etc...we can probably advise much better with the bare facts :)

I have to agree that you may be going about this the wrong way. After thoroughly reading what you want to accomplish, I think that Ajuga might be a good fit. It enjoys moist conditions, is widely adaptable to different types of soil, bears pretty flowers and comes in a wide range of colors, leaf shapes and blossom colors. It DOES tolerate clay and will do well in shady or partially sunny areas, which means the ones shaded from the junipers will not suffer. It is a semi-evergreen, creeping perennial. It is also called Bugleweed. And you wouldn't have to "impoverish" your soil to plant it. :) Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Ajuga-Bugleweed

I agree that doctoring that site would be more work than it is worth, and likely you will not achieve what you envision. I plan to plant bearberry as well, but I think my site can handle it/is more appropriate, if not, I may try to grow it on a smaller scale--creating a small pocket of appropriate soil seems much more doable than what you describe, and if it doesn't work, then I guess one should just enjoy it in nature.

Assuming you want to keep things native, ajuga does not fit the bill.

I'll throw another suggestion into the mix to avoid messing with the soil. Glandularia canadensis. I'm not sure what state the original poster is in, but they should check to see if it would work for them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Glandularia canadensis

I have been using strawberries as ground cover. Looks good and taste better!

Have you thought of digging it out a bit and pouring a strip of concrete between the buildings about 2" thick?

You could then plant what ever you want on your side of the fence.

I wouldn't give up on the Arctostaphylos so easily based on those descriptions. It is fairly adaptable and has a wide geographic range (see link). It is common here in Idaho and grows in filtered shade to full sun. I think the only thing it really doesn't like is heavy, wet soils. It is common in the nursery trade because it is so adaptable and has many nice qualities. You might want to see if there is a native plant nursery in your area that is growing from local stock. Then you are likely to find something well suited to your site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Native range of bearberry

At the risk of going against the grain, I did this in a large area. I hauled in a big load of coarse sand to "impoverished" the area with that goal specifically in mind. Lean soil was the word I actually used, sounds a bit less drastic maybe but at the time I did say I was doing a reverse soil amendment, going backwards rather than the more typical soil enrichment achieved by adding compost etc.

All the plants I was most interested in seemed to like lean, poor, fast draining soil so, I provided it after reasoning it out. The pile of sand was an entire dump truck load like you see on new building sites for laying concrete, I bought a whole load, it took a single day to spread out with a wheel barrow.

I wanted native plants that would look more or less like those in the wild rather than having them get too tall, over grown & lanky in richer soil. Many native plants will loose their character if grown too rich.

Weeds pull out very easy, digging is a breeze & I accomplished my goal. I've never regretted it, & it didn't cost a lot either. The plants do great so the experiment worked no matter how insane it sounded. Pretty simple operation all in all, but best of all, I get to grow what I wanted rather than settle for something I wasn't so interested in.

soil impoversihment for growing wildflowers is fairly common in the UK. The favourite method seems to be mechanically removing the topsoil, leaving the nutrient poor subsoil behind. This is not the way I would choose. I am more inclined to go down the phyto-remediation route, growing plants such as sunflowers, grown to take up toxins (heavy metals, for example) in soils, then harvested and burnt. Noting the preponderance of annual sunflowers grown on my allotments, (something of a UK tradition, along with dahlias) and the resulting leached and impoverished soils, this would be my preference.
By the way, my understanding of growing bearberries is that ph is a more important criterion than soil vitality - they need a sandy acidic heathland and will not tolerate lime at all.